The Experience Corps Program, which was initiated in 1996 in New York's South Bronx, connects retirees with children in elementary schools. The Experience Corps' volunteers, who are mostly lifelong residents of the South Bronx, work a minimum of 15 hours each week throughout the school year as mentors, tutors, and special assistants. Since 1997,…

Examines the relative effectiveness of two different chemistry curricula. African American students enrolled in an inner-city high school who took ChemCom, a Science-Technology-Society-based science curriculum employing cooperative learning as an integral component, scored significantly higher gains on a standardized measure of chemistry…

Reviews the four articles in this special theme issue. Relates the articles to a broadened understanding of the concept of integration and its implications for education in the next century. (FMW)

Reports on a survey of attitudes and teaching methods of 20 selected music teachers from large urban areas in the United States. Discusses the teachers' opinions and suggestions on preservice teacher education, classroom techniques, and improvement of urban music education. Includes survey questions and teacher responses. (CFR)

Describes a study that provided innercity fourth grade African-American students in Texas with hardware to participate in a telecommunications network to determine whether participation would increase their scores on statewide fifth grade math tests. Time online, content of programs, connections between math and language arts, and student…

Explores the role of parent involvement and bilingual education in improving the educational experience of language minority students, particularly in urban settings. Asks whether parent involvement is a feasible solution, and looks at the chance that bilingual education will decrease dropouts and empower students. (JB)

Mass testing as a phenomena of global educational restructuring exacerbates social class differences. This phenomenon is examined via inner-city Winnipeg's experience, cross-cultural educational literature, and the Manitoba government's tendency to reinforce the underdevelopment of core area regions. Emerging resistance to educational…

This study examined the effects of four preservice teacher education courses (two in multicultural education, a field experience, and student teaching in urban areas) on preservice teachers' perceptions of their multicultural knowledge and attitudes. Findings indicated that subjects' perceptions of multicultural knowledge and attitudes were…

Cognition, mind, counseling psychology, lesson plans, learning styles, and Vygotsky are just a few of the many subjects discussed in this exciting work. Educators, students, counselors, parents, and others will find new understanding as they read and browse. How does the immigrant experience affect student outcomes? What are the effects of poverty…

The qualitative inquiry reported here describes the particular sociocultural aspects of an urban elementary school serving as the context for an award-winning reading/language arts early field experience, and takes a close look at how the sociocultural factors of this urban elementary school contribute to the professional development of the…

This volume contains personal reflections by four teachers in Texas on their year-long Trinity University intern teaching experience at Mark Twain Middle School, an urban professional development school in San Antonio. Part 1 by Corinne McKamey, "To understand teaching you have to be there, engrossed in the human interactions," is a…

This practicum was designed to address the problem of middle school students reacting to and handling conflict situations with violent behavior in an urban environment. These responses affected the well-being and safety of all middle school students at the school. The major goal was for middle school students to increase their awareness of…

Fourth-grade students (83% of whom were identified as "at risk") in an inner-city school in the southeastern United States participated in a hands-on, interdisciplinary unit about the environment for 2 weeks. Lessons covered a wide range of environmental issues such as pollution, rainforest devastation, recycling, and Earth appreciation.…

Urban Head Start graduates were compared with comparably poor Pre-K graduates in this longitudinal study, in an effort to evaluate the long-term effects of the Head Start program. A sample of 227 children were included in an analysis of third-grade report cards, standardized Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) achievement scores, and a…

The culmination of work by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's (ASCD) Urban Middle Grades Network, a special Advisory Panel on Improving Student Achievement, and the Improving Student Achievement Research Panel, this book proposes a repertoire of tools for educators meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse student…